26 years ago i was born and as per wikipedia, that wasn't even the worst of it

1258 - Battle of Baghdad - Mongols overrun Baghdad, burning it to the ground and killing large numbers of citizens (estimates range from 10,000 to 800,000).
1355 - The St. Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days.
1542 - Queen Catherine Howard of England is confined in the Tower of London to be executed three days later for treason (adultery).
1933 - The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduces the first singing telegram.
1981 - A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino kills eight and injures 198.
1998 - A college dropout becomes the first person to be convicted of a hate crime committed in cyberspace.
1998 - Voters in Maine repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997 becoming the first U.S. state to abandon such a law.
1999 - Avalanches in the French Alps near Geneva kill at least 10.
2005 - Arthur Miller, American playwright (b. 1915), dies

Holidays and observances
Catholicism - St. Scholastica Day; World Marriage Day.
Italy - National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe to commemorate Italian Istrian and Dalmatian exiliee and Foiba massacres.
Malta - St. Paul's Shipwreck day. Birth of Catholicism in Malta.